Dying Light Mods Being Taken Down by DMCA Claims

DMCA, which is actually the abbreviation of Digital Millennium Copyrights Act, is something that helps a lot in most of the cases where copyright infringement takes place in the digital world.

However, there is a downside if it is abused – I’m using the word abused in line with the industry and community standards of gaming.

For instance, if the law is used in a certain way it can cause some of the most amazing mods to be taken down. Just like Techland is doing with Dying Light Mods.

Apparently, the studio is not happy with modders who are making things like a grain removal mod or other interesting experiments (which, I must add, are totally in line with what modders are expected to do).

As a result, we have picked up reports from the community over at Reddit where people are complaining against the steps that are being taken by the development studio.

Here is one part of the message that was sent to MediaFire where the Grain Removal Mod of Dying Light was taken down from. It is from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and clearly states that the action was taken after a DMCA claim:

The material located on and/or being distributed from the URLs listed on the attached is infringing the copyright rights of one or more ESA members by copying and distributing unauthorized copies of game products, in violation of applicable copyright laws.

It looks like this change came into effect after a recent patch of the game “blocked cheating by changing game’s data files.”

Now, while this stops cheating it also stops modders from “changing game’s data files,” looks like the fun part of Dying Light just got a major blow.